Chongqing - It was a couple of days ago now, but with multiple large events on the calendar, and feeling a little insecure about my own photos, it took me some time to finally find the courage to post the photos I took on a trip with some rather famous photographers in Chongqing. One of whom has been a bit of an idol for me over the past few years, especially, his name is Zhang Kunkun.

On May 20th, we were invited to visit a handful of photogenic locations around Jiulongpo district, an area I am quite familiar with myself but not one that I normally visit very often. The most famous areas there, that I can think of is in Huangjueping, the long graffiti street, and of course, the famous Jiaotong Tea house, where time seems to have just frozen and stopped somewhere in the 80s.

After starting with a small media assignment, we headed off for Jiulongpo District, and naturally, the graffiti street and the tea houses were first on our list of places to visit. As a bit of an introvert, I find it hard to photograph Jiaotong tea house because it is so reliant on the people there. As someone who wouldn't really want to be photographed on the streets myself, I find it hard sometimes to photograph others as well, which bothers me, because Jiaotong Tea house is so full of atmosphere and you can take some amazing photos in there.

After spending a short while at the Jiaotong Tea House, we went on to walk down Graffiti Street. I really like the artwork there, but it isn't really something that is within my style and taste when it comes to photography, so it isn't a place that I often photograph. I do enjoy walking on the street through, it has a very sort of young, energetic feel to it.

Finally, towards the end of the day, we came to a location that I really enjoyed. An old, decommissioned Coal Power Plant (I think) located at the edge of Jiulongpo. I have never been in such a structure before, and it was a bit overwhelming to see the sheer scale of the machinery and the buildings that are left there. As far as I understood, the place isn't actually open to the public, and we had gotten special permission to get in. Which just made everything all the cooler.

I hadn't really noticed how the other photographers I was hanging out with were working, but they all sort of walked off and started doing their own thing. The three of them are old friends, with really nice gear, and when we met in the very beginning we were all comparing our camera bodies and lenses with each other, like boys with toys.

The decommissioned coal power plant was really cool and let itself nicely to some eerie-looking photos, very much my style and feel.